RAC drivers continue to dominate
Colin Turkington extended his championship lead with a lights to flag victory in his 200th BTCC race, heading home teammate Stephen Jelley as Team RAC continued their dominance of the Croft weekend.
Jelley’s second position was briefly challenged going into the first corner by a fast starting Rob Collard, but from then on the pair of Team RAC BMW’s steadily pulled away in another dominant performance.
Victory takes Turkington’s tally this season to five wins (including taking four victories in the last five races), making 2009 his most successful BTCC season already!
Behind the West Surrey run BMW’s, Collard held third from Jason Plato and Fabrizio Giovanardi for the first ten laps, with the superior traction of the Chevrolet out of corners holding off the Vectra, until the Lacetti driver found a way past on the inside at Tower.
The pair ran side-by-side on the exit, but with Plato holding the line of the Esses, it was all set for a repeat of race one’s podium.
Collard held onto fourth, ahead of a line of Vauxhalls as both Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan tagged onto the back of the train as the race progressed.
Further back, Adam Jones got past James Thompson at Tower for eighth, while Paul O’Neill’s tenth place was good enough to earn him pole position for the reverse grid race three.
Crossing the line lights ablaze in a Le Mans style formation finish, both RAC drivers were happy with their work, but none more so than Turkington, who now has a 23 point championship lead over Matt Neal.
“That race was a little bit easier than the first one. I just got a break at the start, and with Stephen there behind me it’s a little more comfortable.
I knew in the beginning of the race I had some more pace than him, so I was pulling away towards the end.”
Teammate Jelley was also pleased with his second BTCC podium.
“The car is working really well, and a little bit of weight on it seemed to help to be honest. We’ve had a quick car in the first race, a quick car in this race, so we’ll just see what happens in the third race.”
The final race of the day could well be a wet affair, with clouds gathering over Croft and the temperature dropping, which may suit the Vauxhall’s more than earlier conditions. Not competing however will be Harry Vaulkhard, who’s Lacetti has been written off following his accident with Tom Chilton (who also missed race two) in race one.
The buckled shell of the car means Vaulkhard has to sit out the rest of his home round of the BTCC, as does fellow Chevrolet driver Matt Jackson who withdrew from the meeting after race one thanks to a continued stomach bug.
